


Of Gardens and Girls

by Dovey



Series: Bittersweet Treats [5]
Category: Naruto
Genre: Haruno Sakura-centric, Platonic Soulmates, Romantic Soulmates, Soulmate AU, Unrequited Love, all types of unrequited love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-30
Updated: 2018-04-30
Packaged: 2019-04-30 02:33:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,128
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14486889
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dovey/pseuds/Dovey
Summary: Soulmates: a person so important, so loved, and so central to your life that the universe acknowledges it. Flowers representing that love will grow inside of you until the love is requited, or you move on.Sakura has a lot of soulmates.





	Of Gardens and Girls

**Author's Note:**

> a short story because I wanted to try my hand at the soulmate cliche.

Sakura knew about soulmates. Her mama had taught her when she was little, and she’d gobbled up book after book filled with fairytale romances. Most people only have one, but Sakura hopes she has lots. She loves love, wants to share as much of it as she can. She doesn’t have any friends right now, but she thinks she’d be a good one, if she just got the chance.

Sakura’s first soulmate is Sasuke Uchiha. She finds it out when she meets him and she feels the taste of _green_ in her mouth, just like Mama had promised. She wonders what seed has taken sprout in her tummy- she hopes it’s not a watermelon, ‘cause that’s way too big for her right now, but if that’s what Sasuke is then she’ll just have to get bigger real fast.

She thinks it’s Lilies, eventually, when they tickle her throat. Tall and soft and fragile, and they remind her of the pretty boy she just wants to help. He’s mean right now, but she knows it’s because he’s sad, so she him be mean and clings desperately to him anyways.

Her next soulmate she finds in her third year at the academy, and she doesn’t like him at first because his _scratch._ It’s aboravite, and it takes her a long time to get the syllables right because it’s so long and she’s mad at him for how annoying it is, these ugly itchy things sprouting in her lungs, but then she finds out in the Koniochi classes that aboravite means lifelong friendship and she feels so bad that she makes him lunch every day for a week to make up for it.

Sometimes she still hits him on the head, but she thinks that’s okay because friends are allowed to roughhouse and they’re gonna be friends forever.

Her third soulmate is Ino, and she doesn’t know why it took so long for the stargazers to tangle up along her ribs when she’d loved Ino since they first met, but it takes their falling apart and rejoining as rivals for the flowers to cling along her ribcage and seek shelter in her chest.

Her fourth soulmate is her sensei, and the peonies burst in her stomach all at once when he promises to take care of her boys, because she loves her teammates, and she needs them to be looked after. She thinks Kakashi-sensei looks too sad, too often, so she tries to sit with him when she can. She cares for his wounds and softens the blow of his worst memories, and smiles for him even when she’s scared because the peony is a sturdy little thing, but it still needs shade and water. She does what she can, and she thinks it might even help.

It happens, like that, more and more as the days go on. Her body is a garden, growing more disorganized and glorious every day. She’s lost count of how many flowers she has, how many weeds she refuses to pluck. Sakura has so many soulmates, and she wants all of them to thrive.

She begins to cough up dandelion seeds and daisy petals, but she hides it behind subtle hands and careful sips. Her bones begin to creak from the pressure of layers of clinging ivy, stargazers and the roots of persistent baby’s breath. Sakura loves her garden, but she’s also embarrassed. No one has as many soulmates as her, but she’s never had it returned. No one has pulled her aside and held out shaking hands, cupping a flower in their palms that rings true to her. Some of her soulmates have found their own, and it doesn’t make the ones in her wither but flourish all the more. When Naruto introduces her to Gaara with _that_ smile on his face, sunflowers in his hands and a blush on his cheeks, she pushes back memories of sand and crushed lungs, and hugs the boy fiercely. It doesn’t take long for the prick of a cactus to form in her gut, and when Naruto asks her if she approves, she can agree without hesitation. It hurts, it hurts so bad, but it’s beautiful. Her village is beautiful.

It hurts the most when she finds out that Kakashi had felt red clovers in the rooftop in his mouth years ago, back at the chuunin exams, and he’d shared them with _Sasuke._ His heir. His pseudo-son. His favorite student.

Sasuke didn’t water peonies in his stomach, didn’t chase after the man and promise him obedience or admiration. Sasuke was cruel and distant and angry, and he took from Kakashi until Kakashi couldn’t give anymore, and then he left. So why did Sasuke get to be the one who’d made the old man crack, forced him into caring and knowing and trying? Why was Sasuke the only one who got to be a student worth remembering?

But Sakura still tended to her peonies, because her garden was beautiful, and she couldn’t help who she loved, and she forgives him despite herself.

She stops talking so much, the tickle at her throat turning tighter and tighter from the push of so many plants. It hurts to speak, so she doesn’t. She feels the moss on the roof of her mouth and keeps her thoughts to herself, and starts to doubt she has anything worth saying anyways. Maybe the others think she’s mellowing out with age- twenty feels ancient, after all, when you fought a war at fifteen- but part of her worries they just don’t care enough to notice.

She drinks lots of water, but doesn’t eat much food. It hurts too much to swallow, and she worries about the plants in her stomach- can they handle the nutrients, or is it unsafe?

Sakura thinks she has at least twenty six soulmates when she dies.

She’s missed seeing Hinata and Naruto and Gaara, with how busy they’ve been preparing for the arrival of their firstobrn, so she springs at the chance to visit them. Hinata opens the door with a smile, a soft hand on her shoulder, and Sakura pulls her into a gentle hug before they both make their way into the house.

Naruto is beaming, and he finally turns to face them both, a warm bundle in his arms.

“Sakura-chan! Meet Boruto-kun.” He says, with a soft pride warping his voice in a way she’s never heard before. Sakura looks, and she sees a sweet little a face, his mother’s eyes, the future of her village and a sign of unity with Suna. He smiles at her, pudgy arms reaching out, and she feels the flowers burst in her lungs in an instant.

 _Sweetbriar,_ she thinks, and then she suffocates.

 

Her grave sprouts anemones and tulips.

**Author's Note:**

> i promise im working on nice mini sakura aus too ahhh. let me know what you think! i've never tried the whole "Soulmate" thing before, at least partially bc its hard to write it interesting without being TOO cliche or too out of bounds for what people like soulmate aus for?


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